COVID-19 & US healthcare system

[robkelk]

CBC Analysis: 'Wartime president' Trump isn't calling all the shots in U.S. battle against COVID-19

tl;dr: No one person gets all the credit or blame for how the USA is handling the pandemic response.

"No, the president cannot simply order state and local governments to change their policies," says University of Texas law professor Robert Chesney, writing in the Lawfare blog.

Constitutionally legitimate federal laws do supersede state and local laws, he says, but there isn't a federal law that fits these circumstances. Without one, "it does not follow that President Trump can therefore override state and local rules on matters like shelter-in-place."

Still, Trump does bring some unique powers to the fight against COVID-19. At the end of January, for instance, Trump barred entry by foreign nationals travelling from China — the original epicentre of the outbreak — to the US. Only a president has the authority to do that.